Cuban Interests Section

Pasadena Mayor William M. Paparian and his family are spending this week in Havana, Cuba, on an unofficial trip paid for by the Cuban government, according to a city official. Because the United States recently tightened its export embargo on trade with Cuba, Paparian informed the State Department before his visit. The mayor said he will not be representing Pasadena, said Ann Erdman, city public information officer. In February, Jose Luis Ponce, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C., visited Pasadena and other Southern California cities to speak about U.S-Cuba relations, Erdman said.

Officials at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Havana have quietly taken down an electronic sign that infuriated the government, the latest evidence of a partial thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations. Officials confirmed that last month they dismantled the 5-foot-tall sign, which for the last three years displayed messages critical of Cuban authorities. In return, the Cuban government has taken down some nearby billboards condemning the United States.

The accusation against Rene Cruz Sr. and his son of "conspiracy and expedition against friendly nations" is really absurd when one considers that during the last 30 years, no U.S. administration has considered Cuba a "friendly nation" (Dec. 19). I'd like a straight answer from our government as to why Americans should be arrested and imprisoned for attempting to overthrow a communist dictatorship that denies to its own people the very freedoms we Americans take for granted. NORMAN F. BIRNBERG Long Beach Re "Friends Praise Suspect in Cuban Invasion Plot as Selfless Activist," Dec. 22: It is absolutely ridiculous to think that the Cuban people are waiting for that kind of terrorist attack to revolt against the government.

Re "Castro Risks World's Ire, Envoy Says," April 8: Only the Bush administration could possibly have produced a fool such as U.S. envoy James Cason, the head of the massive U.S. Interests Section in Havana. What right has this man to blatantly foment anti-government sentiment in Cuba? Is that what he calls diplomacy? Would we want the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington to step over the line and advocate anti-government acts here? Cason tells us that Fidel Castro wouldn't dare close our Havana facility because such "would provoke a tit-for-tat expulsion that would deprive Havana of its lobbying office in Washington."

Cuba's low-level diplomatic mission to Washington, technically a tenant of the Czechoslovak Embassy since 1977, received an eviction notice Wednesday. The move could force Cuba to find another sponsor or lose its only official contact with the United States. But, in yet another sign of how much the world has changed in the last year, the hard-line Communist nation may find that it has few allies willing to sponsor its interests section.

Re "Castro Risks World's Ire, Envoy Says," April 8: Only the Bush administration could possibly have produced a fool such as U.S. envoy James Cason, the head of the massive U.S. Interests Section in Havana. What right has this man to blatantly foment anti-government sentiment in Cuba? Is that what he calls diplomacy? Would we want the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington to step over the line and advocate anti-government acts here? Cason tells us that Fidel Castro wouldn't dare close our Havana facility because such "would provoke a tit-for-tat expulsion that would deprive Havana of its lobbying office in Washington."

Officials at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Havana have quietly taken down an electronic sign that infuriated the government, the latest evidence of a partial thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations. Officials confirmed that last month they dismantled the 5-foot-tall sign, which for the last three years displayed messages critical of Cuban authorities. In return, the Cuban government has taken down some nearby billboards condemning the United States.

A Cuban general who holds a top position in that nation's military command defected with his family to the United States on Thursday, flying a small plane to the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Florida. A U.S. intelligence official described the defector, Brig. Gen. Rafael del Pino Diaz, as a "very big fish." He is believed to be the highest ranking military officer ever to flee the Havana regime of Fidel Castro. Information about the defection was sketchy, and U.S.

New economic sanctions ordered against Cuba in August by the Reagan Administration have had almost no effect because Havana trades almost exclusively with other Communist nations, according to Ramon Sanchez Parodi, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. "Everything that we need and every country with whom we can trade will trade with us," Sanchez Parodi said in a breakfast interview at The Times' Washington Bureau.

A Cuban diplomat who was expelled from the United States on allegations of spying and deported to Canada stayed inside the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa on Monday as the time limit on his transit visa ran out. Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Jose Imperatori would become an illegal alien if he remained in Canada beyond the two-day limit allowed by the visa granted him on Saturday.

Pasadena Mayor William M. Paparian and his family are spending this week in Havana, Cuba, on an unofficial trip paid for by the Cuban government, according to a city official. Because the United States recently tightened its export embargo on trade with Cuba, Paparian informed the State Department before his visit. The mayor said he will not be representing Pasadena, said Ann Erdman, city public information officer. In February, Jose Luis Ponce, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C., visited Pasadena and other Southern California cities to speak about U.S-Cuba relations, Erdman said.

The accusation against Rene Cruz Sr. and his son of "conspiracy and expedition against friendly nations" is really absurd when one considers that during the last 30 years, no U.S. administration has considered Cuba a "friendly nation" (Dec. 19). I'd like a straight answer from our government as to why Americans should be arrested and imprisoned for attempting to overthrow a communist dictatorship that denies to its own people the very freedoms we Americans take for granted. NORMAN F. BIRNBERG Long Beach Re "Friends Praise Suspect in Cuban Invasion Plot as Selfless Activist," Dec. 22: It is absolutely ridiculous to think that the Cuban people are waiting for that kind of terrorist attack to revolt against the government.

Cuba's low-level diplomatic mission to Washington, technically a tenant of the Czechoslovak Embassy since 1977, received an eviction notice Wednesday. The move could force Cuba to find another sponsor or lose its only official contact with the United States. But, in yet another sign of how much the world has changed in the last year, the hard-line Communist nation may find that it has few allies willing to sponsor its interests section.

A Cuban general who holds a top position in that nation's military command defected with his family to the United States on Thursday, flying a small plane to the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Florida. A U.S. intelligence official described the defector, Brig. Gen. Rafael del Pino Diaz, as a "very big fish." He is believed to be the highest ranking military officer ever to flee the Havana regime of Fidel Castro. Information about the defection was sketchy, and U.S.

The United States said Monday night that it was expelling a Cuban diplomat in response to the expulsion of a U.S. envoy from Cuba who had specialized in human rights issues. The State Department disclosed in a written statement that Cuba last week revoked the visa of Robin Meyer, accusing her of carrying out activities "incompatible with her diplomatic status"--diplomatic parlance for spying.